Parents Devastated When Baby Dies, But Say God Had Another Plan For Them

By: Mackenzie Wright | November 25, 2017

One young couple had always dreamed of having a big family. In fact, there was a time when they dreamed of having 13 kids. They finally decided on four.

They wanted to have two biological children, and the other two they wanted to adopt. Things didn't exactly work out the way they planned, but they believe it was meant to be.

Josh and Katie Butler were ecstatic when she first became pregnant. They thought they were on their way to that big, loving family they'd always wanted. But when Katie was about 20 weeks along, she and Josh got some bad news from the doctor after a routine ultrasound.

“We went in, and they told us there was some thickening of the neck and that the baby had club feet,” Katie told The Daily Advertiser. “Those were all markers for genetic conditions."

There is only so much that can be picked up on ultrasound machines. The expectant parents were told they might just have a tiny baby, or things could get worse. As the pregnancy continued, things did seem to get worse.

When Dewey was born, Katie got to hold her baby for a few minutes before he was rushed into neo-natal intensive care. He did have clubbed feet and a webbed neck, and he also had diabetes. But other than that, things didn't look as bad as doctors thought.

Unfortunately, though, the good news was only temporary. Things got bad again. "...They discovered that chromosomes 6 and 10 had broken off and flip-flopped, but it didn’t happen equally. Basically, he was missing some genetic information and some was duplicated,” Katie said.

Dewey got to go home for the while, but when he went back for a routine visit he was rushed into heart surgery. At only four months old, baby Dewey passed away. His parents were grief-stricken.

"In November, it was a Wednesday, I really poured out my heart to God, crying, that I needed another baby. We had so much love and poured it into Dewey and now he was in heaven … I needed more kids to love,” said the grieving mother.

That's when a surprise opportunity came along. A nurse from the hospital who had gotten to know the couple called.

A baby boy named Braxtel was born and ended up in the NICU because of breathing problems. He was about to be discharged, but his parents had left him and decided to give him up for adoption. They knew he had health problems, and they wouldn't be able to afford to care for him.

“Like Dewey, Brax was on a ventilator and had a trach, and when doctors told us, we were like, ‘We got this.’ With Dewey, there was no chance of his lungs getting better, but with Braxtel, he could get better. It was an optimistic situation,” said Katie.

The couple ended up adopting Brax. He was not the baby they planned to bring home and raise, but they were so grateful to have him.

“There have been a lot of emotions,” says the mom. “Our highs are really high and sometimes, we just get sad. I just cry. I had to start singing worship songs to get me to focus on the bigger picture: God is in control, Dewey is healed, Brax has a second family, and there is so much to rejoice about.”